Unite the Union gave £1m to Labour at start of General Election campaign

Charlotte Henry is a former City A.M. reporter. She is the author of the upcoming book Not Buying It, a look at fake news and how to solve it, to be published by Unbound where you can pledge and buy the book.

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Unite the Union donated £1,005,000 (Source: Getty)

Labour raked in over £1m in donations during the first week of the official General Election campaign, double the amount the Conservatives raised during that same period.

The figures, revealed by the Electoral Commission, who record donations over £7,500, show that almost all that money came from a £1,005,000 contribution from Unite the Union. Another union, Unison, donated £506,240, and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) donated £51,072.

The only business to give Labour a large donation was Toni and Guy, the hairdressing firm. The biggest individual donor to the Labour party was the property magnate Sir David Garrard, who gave the party £250,000.

Conservative candidate for Crawley, Henry Smith, commented: “The union fatcats have once again lavished the dosh on Ed Miliband. That’s because they know he’s a weak leader who’ll dance to more than one tune: not only Nicola Sturgeon’s, but theirs too.”

The Conservatives had more individual large donors than Labour, and raised £501,850 in recorded donations.

Their largest donor was from Ondra Partner’s Michael Tory. The financial adviser and former head of UK investment banking at JP Morgan donated £75,000.

Other contributors to Conservative coffers included Fitriani Hay, co-owner and director of the property investors JMH Group.

Jon Ashworth, the party’s General Election campaign deputy, said the Tories “are relying on their hedge fund donors to fund their campaign.”

Labour say they raised £407,109 from 16,629 small online donations in the first fortnight of April.

Ashworth said: “The Tories may have a small pool of big city backers, but Labour has the will of thousands who want to see a change from five more years of David Cameron.”